Far Cry 2 by Ubisoft is the anticipated sequel to the award-winning original that brings players into the beautiful and hostile world of Africa. Far Cry 2 for Windows Vista/XP features open-ended gameplay that allows you to play the game whichever way you choose, with the choices you make affecting where the game leads you.

Expansive, Realistic Environment Far Cry 2 is set in a fictional region of Africa where you are caught between two rival factions at war. The Ubisoft team spent a lot of time filming and photographing in Africa to get all the details of the landscape and native wildlife. The result is a huge gameplay area that is 50 square kilometers, taking players into and out of the jungle and savannah. Wild animals such as zebras, buffalo, gazelle are encountered during the game, with both players and enemies allowed to interact with them.

Far Cry 2 features an incredible level of detail and realism, with a minimal in-game interface to detract from immersion. For example, players will need to navigate the world using an in-game map and navigation system, weapons will disintegrate over time, and fires will spread and propagate.

Each of the actions a player takes is reflected in the environment and changes the content of the game. To fulfill your mission, you need to play the enemies against each other, using both strategy and skill.

Huge Range of Weapons and Vehicles Far Cry 2 offers gamers a wide range of weapons, from a machete for hand-to-hand combat, to a sniper rifle that can stealthily pluck off enemies from afar. As weapons disintegrate over time, they might jam or even explode in your hand.

There are also a large range of vehicles such as gliders, trucks, cars, and boats that will let you fly, drive, slide, and hover over the open landscapes.

Multiplayer Options for up to 16 Players Far Cry 2 supports up to 16 players and has four gameplay modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond, and Uprising. Players can choose from six different classes in multiplayer, each with its own set of pros and cons. Just as in the single-player mode, multiplayer games will feature dynamic elements, making each session unique.

Far Cry 2, the next-generation first-person shooter, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience. Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal," a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force. OPEN WORLD - The extensive artistic research combined with the next-gen engine will allow you to explore over 50Km2 of seamlessly rendered African landscape. No game has ever provided such freedom of movement! DUNIA ENGINE - The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry? 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montr¨¦al development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and much more... REAL-TIME IMMERSION - Real-time story telling, systemic auto-healing, minimal in-game interface are just few of the features that will make you feel the tension of being alone against barbarous warlords that threaten thousands of innocent lives. WEAPONS OF CHOICE - Choose from a wide range of weapons to make your way to your primary target. Meet the fight head-on with your machine-gun, go berserk with your machete or make stealth kills as a Sniper. If you feel that the atmosphere is not warm enough, light up your flamethrower and let your enemies and everything around them feel the heat.

Watch out for the ending.....?When it comes down to it, gameplay was ok, graphics were good but demanding, sound was actually good if you have 5.1 speakers, guns and physics were mediocre, missions were a little challenging, and save before you get to the prison with the jackel. Overall, there could have been great improvements made to stand to play the game when everything is said and done....more info

Great FPS; almost TOO open ended thoughAfter thoroughly enjoying the original ground-breaking Far Cry, I figured I was in for even more of a treat with FC2. I was almost right. The game is amazing in it's technical aspects; graphics and sound push the envelope as do most games from Ubisoft.

The game-play is great and the storyline unique. For me though, the only downside is the lack of a scripted plot. Usually I'd say that's a plus since scripting in most games leads to a dead-end where the game eventually loses all sense of replayability. The original Far Cry had an 'open environment' but all action and plot triggers were within a carefully crafted script. Sure you could take that boat and explore islands anywhere or roam the countryside to your hearts content but when it came to progressing within the game world you basically had to follow the goals outlined within the story.

Not so in FC2. The storyline is loosely contained within a series of player-initiated missions more akin to an action/adventure game than your typical FPS. While this may sound great on the surface (and surely it is to some), for me it just means the game doesn't grab me by the throat and keep my attention for hours on end. I can pick it up where I left off and play a few hours but at the end I'm not always sure I've progressed toward capturing and/or killing the Jackal (that name I also found that a bit cliche).

So while I am amazed at the graphics engine and in awe of the lifelike African panoramas, I have not found myself coming back for more day after day like I did with the original Far Cry....more info

Two choices: Frustrating or boringFirst, a couple of caveats: I played Far Cry and enjoyed it a lot. I'm playing Far Cry 2 in single-player only, and as yet, I haven't been able to force myself to play the game to conclusion.

This game is about as immersive as a coffee cup saucer. Specifically:

- "Open environment" is deliberately hobbled by the map design. The player is funneled by unclimbable cliffs, such that you've got to fight at all checkpoints, at least early in the game, when you have the fewest weapon options to deal with them.

- The AI opponents are merely 'bots, placeholders for human opponents in the single player game. They can see and shoot through foliage, effectively ending any stealth option. They flank, poorly, with frequent pathfinding problems and stutters. The developers use the standard fix for such shortcomings...more AI opponents (solving quality with quantity...very Stalin.) The first shot by the player zeros all the AI in the area on to your position. Their hearing is apparently much better than mine, since the rapport from long distance AI shots attenuates quickly for me. They can shoot you from insane distances which, when combined with foliage and lack of noise, leaves you dying in ignorance.

- Checkpoint AI spawning has already been covered by other reviewers, but in town, the AI are "belt fed" too. Assigned to assassinate someone in town, I machetted him alone in an alley, and this quiet dispatch still brought down the entire town's AI on me. Out of curiosity I turned on "God mode" and let the bodies pile. After 10-15 minutes of this, I gave up and just walked out of town.

- Weapons are "gamefied". Aside from thrown weapons, ballistics are as flat as a Nebraska horizon. Accuracy and damage performance are all over the chart, even for weapons that in real life take the same ammo (G3 and M-16, for example). The MAC-10 is more accurate than the G3? If such tweaks are going to be made for game balance, just save the licensing fees and model the weapons after ray guns or stuffed bunnies or something. Don't worry about keeping track of ammo of different calibers either. AK-47 ammo is the same as G3 ammo in this game. Weapons from fallen AI can be used, but in the players hands they jam frequently (funny, they were ventilating me fine a minute ago...). This is another gamification to force the player back to the weapons dealer to buy weapons that don't jam. Because that's the only way to get a reliable Kalashnikov in Africa...

- Gamified upgrades. The player can buy additional ammo capacity, weapons, repair and accuracy upgrades, from weapons dealers. But you don't know what any of these actually do until you buy them (no browsing the news stand, apparently). Light assault ammo vest is available long before you can "unlock" the corresponding MAC-10 or Uzi, while the Assault ammo vest for the G3 you've been toting since the start isn't available for quite a while. "Unlocking" weapons instead of finding them as part of the game, is another jarring gamification. Stealth kit isn't available at first, defaulting the player to "run and gun" gameplay.

- Bus stops in the middle of nowhere. Another good idea, poorly executed. Remaking this game as "Futurama: The Shooter" and calling them "tube stations" would have made more sense. Fast travel in Fallout 3 is implemented much better.

- Malaria. I guess they included this feature to provide tension, but like so many other "gamifications" in Far Cry 2, this one just adds annoyance, and further reduces open gameplay.

- No dangerous wildlife. Lions, crocodiles, hippos, rhinos, elephants all could have added interest (and creative ways to deal with opponents.) I don't know why they weren't included. Maybe PETA made a stink.

- "Buddies" are a potentially good idea for cooperative NPC's, reduced to a tacked-on feature to give the player another "life". They don't accompany you, though with the omnipresent hostile AI, you'll be seeing your buddies a lot anyway.

- "Angry drivers" make LA freeways utopian by comparison. These were probably added to keep the Red Bull crowd from being bored while traveling, but they're too stupid to be challenging, and numerous enough to become boring and annoying, quickly. Between these and the respawning guard posts, travel becomes a non-stop firefight against numerous, omnipotent, unintelligent AI gunmen.

Bottom line: If all you're looking for is a lite "run and gun" game against lots of lethal (but stupid) opponents, in a graphically pretty setting, this is the game for you. If you're looking for immersion, open gameplay, multiple ways to solve (or avoid) threats, and any semblance of logic, you'll be either bored or frustrated with Far Cry 2....more info

Drive here do this...Drive here do this...Driver here do this.I was looking forward to this game but it's a "Farcry" from anything I was expecting (I know, probably the 100th time that was used).

Do you want to know what this entire game is? Get a mission, drive across the map, kill. Get a mission, drive across the map, kill. Okay, okay...Sometimes you gotta blow something up, after you get done killing. And most of the time you gotta kill guards at check points to get to your mission...The same guards you just killed on the last mission. And the driving blows after a while, boring.

Thing is, it's the same thing over and over and over and over and....You get the point.

You are supposed to be hunting this arms dealer named the "Jackle" to STOP him from arming two factions so they stop killing each other right? So what do your missions entail? Simple, you get a mission from one faction, and it's to kill the other and viseversa. Wait, I thought I was supposed to help them to stop killing each other...But to do so, I gotta kill them? Hundreds of them?!?!

I don't think I'm gonna finish this one because I already know the ending and here it goes. The Jackle ends up in the unemployment line and on food stamps because he has no one to sell guns to anymore because I freakin killed them all! At least thats how I assume its going to end.

Now, for the positve. The graphic are pretty dam impressive at max settings. The physics are great and attention to detail is very cool. But see this is the problem...You have AWESOME programmers and HORRIBLE writers.

The writers really need to be replaced with people better suited to dream up games...It's like a hot rod with every thing under the hood to blow every one away, but the driver is a doof. Can't blame the mechanics.

And want to dominate this game? Use the Spas12, get in close and you will annihilate every one. Why? Because 20 rounds from an AK-47 into the chest of a tank-top wearing bad guy isn't enough to bring them down. Can you say "WTF"?

*OR*...this game was built as an multiplayer "Unreal/Quake" game with solo play as an after thought? I don't know, it just sugz.

What a let down!Purchased this game when it was on sale for $20. There were tons of reviews all over the internet saying what a great game this is and how it lived up to the hype that it had built.

After playing this game, I have come to the conclusion that there is no point in playing the game! Once you start playing, you'll eventually have to shoot somebody. Once you shoot one person, the entire country has it out for you and you end up just killing EVERYBODY. That would be fun if that is what this game was designed for, but it's not...

The story line is very basic. There is a evil war lord that needs to be shot. Do it. ...Yeah, that's it. You feel like there is no reason to play the game. You never really get engaged.

Oh, and they give you malaria just to piss you off in middle of fire fights...

Horrible story line, average graphics (IMO) and frustrating amounts of 'back-and-forth'.

Btw: The daylight engine is fricken sweet! Doesn't make up for the game though......more info

Don't Buy Activation LimitsThis game is loaded with SecuRom and Activation limits. They need to look at Fallout 3. That is DRM done properly. EA games and UBI soft are out of my book for games to buy because of their draconian DRM schemes....more info

Awesome gameDidn't realize how good this game was until I played it, for anyone that gave this game a bad review, then they missed the point of the game which although the game is a bit repetitive in some parts, is really free and open.

The graphics are good enough, and the weapons are fun and also age, damage, jam and even break in to pieces if you use them too long.

Pretty and fun, but lacking the makings of a "great" gameFar Cry 2 is very pretty. The environment alone is almost worth the price of admission. I game on a 28" LCD at 1920x1200 and the scenes that Far Cry 2 spits out are awesome. Crashing through the bushes under the shadows of large trees in an assault truck is visually stimulating. Enveloping an enemy encampment with fire and explosions is very gratifying.

However, driving through the bushes to have to clear out the SAME stupid enemy encampment for the seventh time is not as fun.

Individually, some of the missions are very fun. Together, they are very repetitive and overly formulaic. The incentive to keep collecting diamonds (the game's currency) vanished for me after I started using my optimal weapon loadout (AR-16, M-79, and dart rifle). Now, I just keep playing so I can say that I beat the game.

Simply Put: This Game is TerribleThis game is not much fun. It reminds me of Doom 3 in that it is basically just a way of showcasing their engine. Yes, the engine is pretty and is relatively easy on system resources considering the output quality, but a good engine does not equal a good game. On top of all of this, there's a pretty good chance the game won't run on your computer due to the Securom software the game secretly installs on your computer. Also, there is evidence that the Securom software is malware and does all sorts of bad things to your computer. If all that weren't enough, you can only install this software a certain number of times, so you're basically spending $50 to just rent the game....more info

I like itI usually don't write too many reviews but I do like this game and feel it's better than Far Cry in every way, I like the daytime passing and all the graphic improvements and although the missions get a little tedious I find the open ended game play makes the game as interesting as you are @ being creative. The AI have certain behavior that is predictable but they actual look for cover and move around so they can be a challenge to hit.

There are actually 2 separate world maps that are huge and are a work of art in themselves. Just make sure you have a top shelf video card otherwise it will probably play like Cyrsis did when it came out.

I have all the options maxed and only get about 40-60 FPS w/ 2 9800's in sli. So the game is a bit of a beast- hardware wise.

I only played the multiplayer on LAN and although quite different then the single player maps it was fun , plus my FPS shot up well over 100 FPS.
My son made a couple of great maps in a couple of hours and a few not so good ones but I was impressed with the editor that comes with the game.

I bought COD World @ War also and find this game to be so much better as the sound actually is descent and compared to the scripted linear single player game in World @ War it's a better game. Make sure you put on the 1.2 patch that enables 5.1 sound which actually works. In W@W I was so disappointed by the lack of 3d sound and any patches or support even 2 months after it's release that I quit playing it even though I bought it just for the multiplayer- too many bugs and no patches...

If you want a game you can play for a while,not finish in a day, don't mind driving around during & between missions and have the video power, you'll probably like the game.

I really like driving the boats on the extensive river system. The whole game to me is next gen and fresh.

I was disappointed, too bad i can't get a refund.OK this game is just pitiful. If you want to enjoy a 1st person shooter, buy any of the Call Of Duty series. This games solo mode is basically just doing chores for some dude. The plot is scattered and uninteresting. The graphics are sub-subpar. It is kind of fun to play multiplayer online, but that gets old fast. If you are rolling in cash then you should buy this game just to realize how right I am. don't waste ur money....more info

A very good (but not excellent) follow on to the original Far CryIf you read many of the other reviews, you will see a lot of complaints about this game. Mostly, I agree with the negative statements - and yet - the more I played this game the more compelling I found it.

To begin with, let me admit I am a big FPS fan especially when a sandbox design is involved, and I still consider the original Far Cry to be the best game ever made (I have played it through many times). Having played this through twice, the second time on "hardcore" and focusing on the side missions, I count this as second in line, with Crysis in third place.

The environment is drop dead stunning, and increasingly awesome as you wander all over the place and take in the almost endless diverse details. (Reviewers talk about Fallout 3 as realistic - not even close to this). I am only disappointed that you are often prevented from climbing to a position of advantage in places where you should be able to. In the original Far Cry I delighted in finding a "seam" where I could very slowly climb to a cliff top and fire down on the unsuspecting mercs. Not in this game, unfortunately, but there are still many, many approaches to dealing with a mission that make it continually interesting.

Yes, the main story is weak and the re-spawning and repetition can be annoying. That's why, in my second time around, I stayed away from the main plot as much as allowed, and simply revelled in the side plots, while getting access to even the most difficult diamonds, and trying different approaches to the most difficult missions (for example, can you pull off an assassination with just one silent shot and get out with no one the wiser).

I also tried my hand at the level designer they include. I replicated a level from Far Cry, just for kicks, with pretty good results. Very powerful and relatively easy to use. I only wish they provided a way for you to place scripted NPCs (I'm not much of a multiplayer fan, which is what this is really for - hence no NPCs).

In any case, I highly recommend this game despite its flaws....more info

FarCry2 - Bored in AfricaThe original FarCry is still one of my favourite shooters of all time. FarCry2 whilst having a similar title, is however something of a departure from the original FarCry. The plot seems based on the book 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, whereby we see western characters bringing moral chaos into Africa (the games setting) through gun running and other activites. You are sent in to this setting with the mission of killing the Jackal - the chief gun runner and arms dealer causing this moral chaos. For those that have seen the idea portrayed in the film 'Apocalypse Now' you will get the idea. This plot is revealed through finding tapes that reveal the Jackals descent into moral darkness along the way in similar fashion to how the plot developed in Bioshock. Despite the same name as the original, FarCry2 is a whole different game, perhaps closest in concept to STALKER. FarCry2 is a giant sandbox whereby you get to do whatever it is that you please and tackle the game in any manner that you want, very similar in concept to how STALKER functioned. STALKER was a fantastic game and should be played by anyone interested in shooters and first person style RPGs. FarCry2 however fails to implement the elements needed in quite the same fashion as STALKER and the game quickly becomes boring and repetitive. There are almost no RPG elements that stalker has and so the tasks that FarCry2 asks you to accomplish become pointless and unimaginative. The world that is created is missing a few things, like civilians, and people living their lives, refugees and hence offers you no reason to feel at home in the enviroment, build a house, or setup a base (such as you might do in Oblivion and like). The world is populated by people that simply want to kill you, they will attack even if they have no chance of success and so in the course of the game your moral compass will shift from seeing if the person is a friendly to murdering people in their cars with flame throwers so they won't irritate you by running you off the road. In this sense the game actually succeeds in advancing the plot so you find the 'Heart of Darkness', but not because of the storytelling, but because everything in the game is so annoying that you just want it to die. As much as I wanted to like this game I found myself playing it to completion for the sake of liberating my hard drive space for something better - never a good sign. How come nobody can do a remake of the original FarCry but update the graphics and add a bunch of new levels or something. How good would that be. I am starting to think that the original was a fluke. The games magazines give this an impressive rating, meanwhile the gaming community has panned it - why do we still buy those magazines.

Stability: Stable, for the most part other than the X-Fi problem. If you have an X-Fi and an nForce chipset then many have experiences snaps and crackling with the sound. I had this problem and could not resolve it. So if your system is suspect to this as mine is then FarCry2 is the worst affected that I have found. Other than sound I did not experience any crashes whilst playing in 50hrs of gameplay.

Graphics: Inevitably this is going to be measured up against Crysis. Is FarCry2 as impressive as Crysis in the graphics department - nope, but I would argue that it is good enough nonetheless. It is similar is quality to Half-Life 2, but perhaps closest in look and feel to Soldier of Fortune Payback - for those who played that game. FarCry2 is slightly drabber that the brighter and more sprightly look is SOF Payback, but the feel is the same. I enjoyed the environment for the most part even if it got repetitive after awhile. Overall the feel and look of the environment is well done, though doesn't vary much like FarCry The Original did. The irony is that SOF Payback might be the better game.

Sound: Apart from the X-Fi problem I mentioned the sound track fits quite well to the environment and doesn't ever feel annoying or out of place. However the sound affects are only better than average, though the atmospheric sounds do their job. There is also a sound positioning problem for those running 5.1 setups however the patch designed to fix this didn't work so well for me.

Gameplay: This is the problem area. Whereas STALKER managed to mix the sandbox idea with an RPG system, with sound and NPCs really well as well as immersing you in a believeable environment, FarCry2 is really a let down in this department. The weapons never really improve, you cannot upgrade your car, you never develop any real friends in the game and the gameplay is a snoozefest. My wife was watching over my shoulder one night as I was playing and she said 'Isn't this boring?' Couldn't have said it better myself. FarCry worked because it kept the open ended part of the game only big enough to allow variety in how to get to an objective. STALKER worked because it allowed RPG elements that affected what you could do in the game and gave incentive for going out and exploring and becoming enveloped in the story. FarCry2 does neither of these things, it just gives a massive gameworld with nothing interesting to do it. No villages to save, no homes to make, no affecting the game in any real way, just tedious driving and console like diamond hunts. Doing console tasks on a PC is a drag, as is FarCry2. The game might have worked better if you went down a long river and got to upgrade your barge without having to go anywhere twice (Apocalyse Now anyone?) Too late to speculate now.

Length: Took me about 50 hours (including wasting my time finding all of the diamonds - a pointless task since you get more than enough money). This is a good standard by today's games, howeever one has to question whether is is 50 quality hours. I argue for the negative, Farcry2 has its moments but these only amount to about 3-4 hours worth.
Replayability: I didn't bother with multiplayer as I have no friends who own the game, and perhaps they are wise as they wish not too. If you find clipping your toenails to be exhilirating then this could be the game for you.

Verdict: 2.5/5. In the end a mediocre effort, an impressive presentation but lacked fun. A far cry from the original (pun intended).

My current FPS Ranking (of alltime favourite shooters that I have played):

Ok game play, but disappointing graphicsThe game play on this was ok.
It tries to be a RPG FPS, but fails in the role playing part.
As a first person shooter, the game was fine.
The quest game play tries to be open and tries to let you do what you want, but he quests eventually run out and the game becomes linear again (which doesn't take long).

It took me longer than normal to finish this game. If you do all the quests and look for all the Easter Eggs, the game becomes very extensive.

The biggest disappointment was the graphics.
They may have been trying to do a style of graphics, but it just didn't work out for me. It felt the graphics was from 2000'ish, and took a step backwards from Farcry 1.

I picked up the game for $18 on a Black Friday deal, and for $18 it was entertaining. I would not buy this game at full price.

Fun but short, story is lackingThe level of detail in this game is fantastic, but a little cartoony at times. I thoroughly enjoyed the different weapons, flamethrower owns. I played through and did most side missions and located 75% of the diamonds in about 30 to 40 hours. Took a little bit of extra time to locate a few gold AK-47's (which are not better than regular ones). Far Cry 2 would be worth playing a second time through if the weapons were upgradable or the enemies varied a little more, hopefully a SDK will come out soon....more info

Didnt mind it Got it free with Gtx video cards. Didnt mind it could have been better but the graphics are pretty cool and after all its just a game....more info

pretty, but annoying (in a bad way)In trying to develop a 'do anything' game style like Oblivion or Fallout3, the player is left directionless. The tasks seem irrelevant, repetitive, and downright stupid. The inventory system is crazy and a subplot of having malaria, is just frustrating.

example mission: stop a convoy carrying (whatever). its not hard as they are just going around in circles, endlessly. I did 3 of these. uggh.

annoyances:
1) take out a sentry post: its back 10 minutes later, oblivious to your having just totaled it and killing everyone.
2) the people you are working for, are shooting at you. (you are on a secret mission, == groan,)
3) everyone is trying to kill you, on sight, chasing after you, ...

Its very pretty, but I gave up after about 5 hours of play. Noting was progressing, what was my goal?

I see where it COULD have been good. But the adoption of the free-play (feels like a VERY LATE decision, or incomplete feature) turns their story line into an after thought: You are a mercenary in Africa during a pre-civil war. Find odd mercenary jobs and go kill and blow up things. Thats about it. The combat is fun WHILE its happening, but the reasons to get from one to another are stupid.

A solid effort, but not without flawsI am torn about this game. The graphics are excellent, I would say they are slightly inferior to those of Crysis, but the game runs much better. The gameplay is fun for a while but it gets old very fast.

The game puts you right in the thick of things from the start. You end up in a hotel sick of malaria when suddenly a gun battle erupts outside. The game slows down a bit from there. Sure you have a ton of missions to complete after the tutorial phase but there is never really a sense of story. The missions include assassinations, blowing up a mercenary weapons stockpile, and attacking a weapons convoy. From time to time you'll have to complete side missions to obtain more malaria medicine and these become repetitive after a while. Repetitiveness is the main problem with this game. While there are many missions that you take on, at the very core, each mission is simply: kill this guy, blow this thing up, or deliver this to this person. Also, some of the missions require a ton of traveling. The game is huge and you have to use a map to get around. Also, if you choose to do the little side mission that one of your buddies gives to you, you'll end up doing a little more traveling for each mission. There's nothing more annoying than checking your map and finding you have to travel to the other side of the map to get to your objective. You can take a bus to various stops scattered around but it still amounts to a fair amount of driving. You'll also get randomly attacked while driving and you have to repair your vehicle once it gets damaged, so that's even more time wasted between missions. Simply put, the time between missions is far too much.

The gameplay feels too simple. The weapons have no alternate fire, you can't prone or lean, and there's no melee attack which can get very annoying when you're right up against an enemy and your gun runs out of ammo. There's no real sense of stealth either as even when I tried to use my machete or silenced pistol to sneak around, the enemy always seemed to find me. The enemies also require some amount of bullets to go down which doesn't quite seem right.

The game does try to be realistic in some way. Your weapons rust and jam if you carry them too long and sometimes they will explode in the middle of a firefight. You'll need to heal yourself when you fall to one health bar by digging out bullets, setting a broken bone, etc. The day and night cycle is pretty cool as well.

SecuROM is included in this game so beware. There is also a 5 machine installation limit.

FarCry 2 is a solid game, but it feels too simple for a modern game and it does get repetitive after a while....more info

Lamest shooter everUbisoft Montreal is responsible for this pathetic attempt to squeeze a few more bucks out of the Far Cry name. This game is nothing like the original Far Cry. I mean nothing, zilch, zip, nada. Calling it Far Cry in the first place is in fact absolute proof that this company either has no scruples or is just completely incompetent. Ubisoft maintains that this game is exactly how they meant it to turn out and people who don't like it just wanted a repeat of the first game. Well, a sequel is what I wanted, true. Something reminiscent of the first game even if only in excitement and awe. Far Cry 2 is a 1 hour game that is just cycled 40-50 times to make it last a long time. It is repetitive and frustratingly simple minded. There are some beautiful scenes but that is the only thing decent about this game. It is a waste of time and money. Far Cry, Crysis, and Crysis Warhead on the other hand are all quite similar, interesting, and fun. They remind me a lot of Half Life or some of the old Sierra games (Space Quest, etc). I will never buy another UbiSoft title. They just plain suck. ...more info

Sophisticated, visually impressive, but repetitive.Far Cry 2 is done in the style of Fallout 3 and STALKER. If you liked them, you'll like FC2. Rather than having a linear path, FC2 has a huge landscape that you can roam at will to accomplish missions. There are main missions, side missions, and buddy missions. There are also underground missions, but they only seem to get you the medicine required to treat your malaria (STALKER has radiation, FC2 has malaria).

The game has a nice variety of weapons, all of which jam if they get too run down, so there are gun shops scattered around so you can renew your weapons (for free). You can purchase new types of weapons with diamonds that you find during your travels. As you get further into the game, new weapon types become "unlocked" for purchase. You can use weapons picked up from the bad guys, but they jam a lot. I never felt like I was going to run out of ammo or health (which is plentiful in the form of first aid kits).

There are cars, SUVs, jeeps, and boats to drive. Some of them have machine guns or grenade launchers mounted on the back. You can change between the driver seat and the machine gun seat, but you can't be traveling and shooting at the same time. There are no friends who drive while you shoot or vice versa. The jeep with the grenade launcher is the most fun. The game has nice explosions and a lot of destructible environment. The trees shake when explosions go off nearby and branches are sheered off by bullets. NICE! Very state of the art.

The terrain is a vast jungle. I would have to say this is probably the best landscape I've ever seen in a game. It's fun to drive around in it which is good, since you'll be doing A LOT of driving around.

Basically, the missions seem to be intentionally located in places that require you to do a lot of traveling. I think you can drive from place to place without ever having the game stop to load a new environment. I think it must load while you're driving or something. There are five bus stations, one in the center and one in each corner. You can go to the bus station and transfer instantly (almost) to any other bus station. That does save you some travel time, but the game WILL stop to load a new environment when you make a bus trip.

The game has a nice status screen that tells you almost everything about your progress that you could want to know, including what percentage of the game you've completed and how many hours you've played. It took me 35 hours to complete the game. The learning curve was fairly quick without being burdened with frustrating complexities.

Overall, FC2 is a sophisticated, visually impressive, game with lots of bells and whistles, but as others have said, it's very repetitive with no significant change in setting or enemies throughout the game. You find yourself basically doing the same thing over and over again. If you clear an enemy checkpoint on the road, you will have to clear it again next time you pass through. Many missions are very similar to each other, differentiated by a plot element. You either have to deliver something or kill someone.

While I know this style of game is becoming popular as linear games are considered old fashioned, I am someone who likes linear games. I like the fact that the game developer can ensure I have new environments, new weapons, and new enemies as I work my way through the game. I want to anticipate fresh surprises as I play. I think FC2 falls short on that score.

As an FYI, my computer is a 3GHz Core 2 duo, w/4GB ram, dual SLI-linked 8800GTS 512 GPUs, running Vista x64. I had the resolution set to 1050x1680. I had everything set to high and the game was perfectly smooth. If you have 5.1 sound, you can easily tell where someone is by where the sound is coming from....more info

Far Cry 2 - not top FPS but good value for $$ single playFar Cry 2 - Over all good game....8/10 - not the best in the class but much better than playing your others over again. Very good value for money in terms of $$ per hour of play.

I have played all the FPS shooters to come along over the years (All PC) and love the Genre. I Bought FC2 along with Fallout 3 and Call of Duty WaW ...Far Cry won the toss and got installed first. I was a little hesitant about it at first as I thought I might be put off by the role play element in the game, but it turned out not a true worry. The role play on the whole adds to the immersion and gives you some structure in a non-linear game. The big drum of marketing for Far Cry 2 was the open landscape - you are in a small African country under civil unrest and you can fight for yourself, either side, the resistance, or all of the above as you see fit.

World: Yes it is open to a large degree as you have the whole country to play in at your leisure....but no more so than Crysis or Fall Out 3. I never felt overly restricted by linier FPS games (Doom, quake, COD4, Half-life, et. al.) so the openness was not all that revolutionary to me...and it does have a down side....redundancy. You spend a lot of time retracing your steps and covering (fighting over) the same ground. Not a bad thing necessarily...but a trade off. Weather was a nice touch - wind, rain storms, etc. as was the time movement....the days move along as you play and you get day, sunset, night, and then sun rise as you play through.

Graphics: Good but not stunning. Better than Half-life, not as good as Crysis or COD4. Crysis had a nock of being a load for the system...not so, I ran it just fine...FarCry2 actually was harder to run with full everything.

Quality: Glitches etc....The auto update feature has issues and needs to be "aborted" to play most days, the game loads really slowly, and hangs often requiring a system reboot (win non vista), also hangs on "load game", several times on load - the graphics engine had issues...clipping, sheets, lines, what looked like twenty feet high wads of colored paper(?) requiring a game restart to clear. When it loaded, and ran, it was good.

Game Play: AI, etc. I am not typical for this space as I like single play as much as online...and most new games short change the single player to wow everyone with the online play. This was VERY good play for the money. COD4MW was 8 hours tops before you were into online games....FarCry2 is at 30hrs and I have still not found everything and completed every mission. The play is pretty good, lots of action - and you can manage the redundancy (after you figure out what is going on as the manual and help sucks - as is usual for these games) with travel by armed Jeep, then bus, then water, and different mission selection to add variance. Or you can just fight your way across the land repeatedly and enjoy the heck out of killing as much as you like. Once you clear a safe house it is yours, but expect towns, checkpoints, etc to get reinforced with new troops if you are gone for very long. The AI is good but not great...if you need more go online and fight people. The AI was mid pack...as in most of these games easy to figure out what the bad guys will do and then set them up for failure (better than Quake, equal to Crysis or COD4mw as I remember it). The bad guys (everyone you see really) are very aggressive....you may well lose "running in guns blazing" unless you are a top player...if you sneak, snipe, funnel, and ambush you will handle them pretty easily.
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Far Cry 2Excellent game,sounds and picture are outstanding. At times you do a lot of the same things,driving,stoping at check points. The weapons selection is a little confusing at times you do not know how to upgrade your weapons? Overall the game is excellent(is it as good as Far Cry?) I still think the first was better in story and this one better in sound and picture....more info

No problemsNo problems with this purchase, shipping, and product. Came new as advertised, and runs with only minor glitches.....very taxing on a PC system. Ya need a pretty decent video card and processor and cooling to run this game to its full potential, other than that...Great game, one of the best next to Crysis Warhead!...more info

Greatness DerailedThe original "FarCry" was one of my all-time favorite games, and which I played through several times. This shares the name only, and should have been titled "Grand Theft Auto: Africa."

The Dunia engine gives great results, as my 8800GT would scarcely slowdown while running across miles of jungle landscape. The graphics were phenomenal, the only thing that disappointed me is the appearance of the characters.

Like the Grand Theft Auto series it's a go anywhere-do what you want game. The trouble with these games are the activities are largely filler except for the missions to advance each level.

You're a mercenary playing off competing factions, but in this world everyone is a mercenary, they all look alike, and except for two-three sequences the only person they want to kill is you.

The gameplay is maddeningly repetitive, every time you do a mission for an arms dealer it's the exact same mission, every mission for the Resistance it's the same house and same people in different locations, every time the bad guys come at you in a vehicle they always floor it until they're on top of you then stop it and step out. Blam Blam, that was fun.

The guns wear out by becoming inaccurate, then unreliable, and finally coming apart. However this happens so fast it's no wonder there's a huge demand for arms. The flamethrower is fun the first time or two, but sooner or later the game boils down to driving endlessly to get to the next objective. Are we there yet?

Only very late in the game does the story start to develop, and it blows it completely on the ending. You have two choices, and both are stupid.

You can take your pick as to which is more disappointing, a game that is frustrating and boring, or a frustrating and boring game that could have been great with a good story and action. ...more info

A FarCry from the First Game....I really enjoyed the first game. It was one of those closet classics that was fun to play. FarCry gets lost really fast as so many have said. Although I enjoyed the first 20 missions, the suddenly become redundant and boring. The graphics are awesome on highest settings with a high end card. That alone makes it worth playing at least some of the missions. There are some neat things like the IED's, the canons on the boat and jeeps when you find them, and some other things. I won't rehash what so many others have said about all the negatives. Bottom line, if you are bored it is worth playing just for fun. If you have other games to play... play them....more info

Bitingly Realistic Sandbox ShooterA rough departure from Far Cry 1, though similar in spirit, Far Cry 2 is a bitingly realistic sandbox shooter game about the rough nature of African civil wars.

Far Cry 2 takes place in an unnamed African nation in the midst of a civil war between two rival factions - the UFLL and the APR, who are indistinguishable apart from the missions that they give you. The player takes the role of 1 of 14 mercenaries (which mercenary is chosen only affects your body, which is only partially visible, and the mercenaries you don't pick become potential allies during the game) on a quest to kill The Jackal, the arms merchant who's been supplying the whole thing. However, you contract malaria before you can do so, and find yourself indebted to one of the factions' lieutenants (which one depends on where you collapse in the initial playable sequence). From there, you set about enriching yourself and making a name for yourself in the war-torn country.

The world is an open sandbox, meaning that you can go anywhere within the map's limits. Travel consists of walking, driving, river travel, and buses (which serve as fast-travel to selected map locations). There are guard posts set on roads and rivers, so it's nearly impossible to get anywhere without a fight. There are also safehouses that, once captured, serve as save points and, once you've upgraded them, places to restock your ammo and weapons. Theoretically, you're part of a war, but the truth is that everyone is hostile to you no matter who you do missions for. Therefore, you are always at risk, as your employers are quick to remind you. Your missions will send you to different points on the map, though luckily you usually only have to go to the place and don't have to worry about returning to collect your pay. Payment is in diamonds, which can also be found scattered around in suitcases on the map; these diamonds are used to buy weapons and gear at the weapons shop.

Missions from the factions are the most free-ranging and generally involve a wider variety of tasks and opposition. Missions from the weapons shop unlock more weapons for purchase and involve attacking rival convoys. Hacking into a cell phone tower will provide you with mysterious assassination missions. Missions from the Civilian Underground consist of deliveries in exchange for malaria medicine - these missions are required, as you'll get malaria attacks after a given number of storyline missions. Therefore, you cannot advance in the story without doing Underground missions.

The game is a first-person shooter that prides itself on gritty realism. Apart from ammo counters and health meters (which disappear when not in use, IE when you're not hurt or reloading), there are no heads-up displays of any kind - not even crosshairs, at least not on higher difficulties. Health is handled in a Riddick-like fashion, where you have five small healthbars and if you're injured, you only recover to the closest healthbar. To recover more you have to use medicine syrettes (which are luckily found in every first-aid box). If you're particularly injured, there is a short scene of you undoing your injury - pushing out a bullet, bending a bone back into place, cauterizing a wound, and so on.

Another part of the game's realism is mechanical failures. Guns that are used frequently will jam or break and vehicles that sustain damage will need to have their engine fixed. Guns used by mercenaries will be visibly rusty and will jam very easily, while guns bought from the gun merchant will be much cleaner and more reliable. It conceivably can get annoying, but it does add a really cool, gritty feel to the game, which adds a lot to the immersion value. Guns tend to be old, reflecting the nature of the war, and vehicles are only cars and jeeps - no tanks, no helicopters, no planes. Just a lot of low-tech, low-intensity warfare, which is pretty neat in its own right.

As mentioned, for the most part you're alone in the country. However, you've got a few mercenary buddies that you meet in some early missions. These buddies are taken from the roster of mercenaries who you did not choose to be your main character. Your best buddy (the first one you meet) will help you on missions by suggesting alternative solutions that make your main task easier. Your second-best buddy (the second you meet) will serve as a Rescue unit - if you run out of health, he'll come out of nowhere, drag you to safety, and help you fight. If a buddy is injured, it's up to you to save them by applying a syrette, and if they die in combat, they're gone forever. Luckily or unluckily, you can't bring buddies along normally - they're just special-use characters who provide only the two roles described above, in addition to giving you some side missions.

The enemy AI is really top-notch, not just in intelligence but in presentation. Enemy chatter is really fantastic; if you're hiding after a firefight, they'll panic, arguing whether or not to chase after you. They'll comment "Oh, he got the new guy, what was his name", and similar points - and it actually feels like real conversations instead of just random snippets. Enemies will hunt relentlessly for you, flushing you out with grenades and gunfire (though you can trick them). Observing mercenaries from afar or sneaking up on them, you can observe a variety of behaviors - smoking, leaning against buildings, checking weapons, talking to each other - that makes them seem very real. There is a reputation system that you build up by doing missions - the higher your reputation, the more people will fear you. With a low reputation, if you push a person in town, then they'll shove you away and yell at you. With a higher reputation, they'll step out of your way, move back and apologize, and whisper to each other about you from afar ("Don't look now, look who it is" "Oh, damn, what does he want?"). The fact that there are no factions is perhaps a commentary on the nature of civil wars in Africa, but for the most part the game does a really excellent job when it comes to your enemies.

The graphics are really great; the detail on guns and objects is fantastic, the mercenaries you face have a wide variety of gear and faces, and everything feels really realistic. Sound is top-notch, with great voice acting and immersive music / background noises. Technically, this game is really great. The world is very detailed, with wildlife (zebras, goats, antelope, gazelle) and a variety of terrain types from jungles to savanna to deserts. Explosions and fire are handled fairly realistically; if a fire starts on a grassy area, it will spread until the whole plain is ablaze.

Overall, the main shortcomings of the game involve the missions. Most of them are far too scattered around the map, and each is preceded by 10 minutes of driving through hostile areas to reach the destination, then in some unlucky cases 10 minutes to drive back and get your reward. There's not enough variety in what you can do, either; besides the fact that you lack the option to go prone or lean (both of which are in Crysis, an earlier Crytek game), there's not a whole lot you can do besides hunt for diamonds or do missions. It feels like there should be more to the game - more varied missions, a deeper infrastructure, actual factions instead of fake ones, civilians, or something. These problems detract from what is ultimately a fairly solid game, and are what may drive a lot of potential buyers away. The multiplayer, too, is basically worthless - standard team deathmatch that doesn't take advantage of the setting, plus there's no co-op in what would be the best co-op setting of all time.

I wouldn't pay full priceThis game was bundled free with an Intel processor, and after playing it, I don't think I would pay more than $20 for it.
The scenery is pretty awesome and I found myself resting and enjoying the sunrise a few times. The music, voice acting and scenes create a truly immersive environment. I love the swaying grass and trees, but got a little tired of the same bird calls.
Most of the checkpoints were laid out realistically, with real objects, but after a while seemed just cookie cutter.
Landscapes were awesome, though I didn't like the unscalable rock walls, forcing head to head attacks rather than stealth. The open world concept was brilliant and highly realistic.
The buildings were weak with transitions to interiors (mostly simple) requiring loads. I forgave the gameplay flaws since it was free and the scenery was grand. You can do that and enjoy the game for its entertainment value, provided you don't pay full price.

A vast majority of the negative reviews on this site have to do with the *concept* of DRM (Digital Rights Management) software that ostensibly prevents piracy. I had almost no issues other than 1 or two failures to load, which were easily resolved by ejecting and reloading the disk. The whiners must be a bunch of losers who can't afford to pay actual money for their games.

Some criticisms of game play come from idiots who cannot figure out other strategies for playing the game.
- Malaria: it is NOT random but based on how long it was since the last pill. Take the damn pill or get more and quit whining. I rarely had it interrupt a firefight.
- Gun Jamming Issue: The children who play these games do not realize how often REAL guns jam, especially dirty ones. That said, the game ones do jam a little too often. Remedy: Upon new mission, go to the armorer and pull brand new weapons off the wall, or stock them in your crates like you're supposed to. Also, some reviewer complained that the enemy weapon never jams. NOT true, they had jamming problems too, to my advantage.
-Vehicle Stalls After Receiving Fire: This is realistic, you are driving POS vehicles and if the radiator gets even one single round, you're gonna be in deep s***. Now the repair thing? That is just totally ridiculous.
-Enemy Pursuit: Yes they follow but will give up the chase after a short while. But it is strange how they have little trouble catching up to you.
-Too Many Bullets Needed To Take Down Enemy: OK, if you want total realism then YOU will also go down after 1-2 rounds. Get hit by an RPG? You will be missing limbs and will certainly die all by yourself out there. You get hit by a head shot? Dead, bye bye. So shut up and quit whining.
-Map Useless: The idiot who complained about this just doesn't know how to use it. You can zoom in or out to set your course across the whole safari.

Legitimate Gripes:
- Sharpshooters: Man they sure do have some outstanding marksmen. The snipers are infallible, but the regulars do miss a lot if you're hidden. They can run and gun a little too accurately.
-Driving Across Creation: Totally inexcusable flaw in the game play. Phony way to make game longer. 100% of the time your next mission is on the opposite side of the map, forcing you into a long tedious journey full of firefights. Many times I decided to walk rather than drive to avoid checkpoints.
-Checkpoints and Respawning: Why is everyone outside towns your blood enemy? Why can't you negotiate or bribe your way through checkpoints? How in the heck can they repopulate after you cleared them out 20 min ago?
-Absurd Safe Houses: You can go through a door and, voila!, the enemy is left scratching their heads as to where you went.
-Impenetrable Barriers: Real bullets and especially RPG's go through wood. Get a clue.
-Assassination Missions Boring: Repetitive and boring.
-Stupid Animals: They die when THEY walk into your vehicle. No dangerous wildlife.
-Rebel Hideouts: These are supposed to be small towns, but are usually just 1 single building surrounded by 3-4 baddies. Totally unrealistic and ridiculous.

I would recommend the game, but look for the price to go down some before purchasing....more info

Overrated by magazines...What more can I say about this bad game that you haven't read before. All the one and two stars rating reviews are accurate. I will have to add that I really don't understand what was all the hype about this game on magazines. Most video game magazines were talking about how good or great this game was supposed to be but you just can't substitute a particular magazine review with several actual players reviews so if you really are planning to buy this game think about it and don't waste your hard earned money like I did with this terrible game....more info

Incredibl... y BadFar Cry 2 is a boring and tedious game, for the most part. The graphics are quite impressive (on a gaming PC), and it was a novel idea to set the game in the African bush. The issue with FC2 is playability. I honestly don't play video games to cure my case of malaria or drive around alone on dirt roads; this is what a good chunk of the game consists of. Also, as many others have pointed out, constantly having to fight at the checkpoints (which are all over the map) is time-consuming and breaks any flow that the game has. The gameplay also suffers from an overdose of realism. An occasional gun jam or RPG breakdown would be okay, but the frequency of this is just plain annoying. This gets better as you upgrade weapons and acquire places to store them, but still sucks. The AI of enemies is carried to an irritatingly difficult extent(even on easy), which is really annoying because there are no auto-save checkpoints, so you must save constantly to avoid losing progress when you die. FC2 tries its best to meld a COD style FPS with a non-linear open environment like GTA, but stumbles on both counts. Die hard fans of the genre will want to check this out, or probably already have, but it really is not worth the cash....more info

Far Cry 2Why Is This Called Far Cry 2? AnyWay It's A really Good Shooter With A Huge Area To Explore. ...more info

Love it!This game is a blast. It has a great control. Moment I start playing it I can't stop. I just beated Stalker Cs, was looking for an other action shooting game. Got this game from Amazon[...]. This game will entertaint me for months to come. This is a game I want. Don't like games with long dialoges or story, I just go ahead and read a novel! I highly recommend for Gta series and Counter Strike fans....more info

Like Playing the Movie Blood DiamondTo start, this is not a direct sequel to the original game. It has some similar mechanics, but beyond that, it is its own game.

You pick a mercenary and enter a world beyond the law, where EVERYONE who moves is fair game to be killed. Rarely does one have to practice target identification. To be short, it's a fun game with fun weapons, really cool fps animations, interesting characters and beautiful Africa as a setting.

Two bad things:

The game crashes after 30-45 min of play. I have 32 bit Vista and apparently this is a memory dump issue that may or may not be patched in the future. Until then, save often and make multiple saves, but be careful, this game also has a nasty habit of corrupting save games. This is frustrating, but hopefully patchable.

Some of the audio seems rushed and unnatural. Pretty annoying when the antagonist is speaking a million words a minute. Not very awesome...

Securom is a non-issue in my book, but to each his own.

Recommended, but admittedly, I got this game on Black Friday when it was $18.95, so buy it when the price drops and another patch comes out.

IMPORTANT..Not About the DRM or SecuROM!!!hi, I have a GIGABYTE GeForce 9500GT OC
it does work well @ 1280x720..but I just discoverd that the game engine itself lags a little bit, for example everyone knows the annoying thing about the game of how many bullets required to kill a single enemy, well..this thing disappears when you set the display to all (Low) and that's it!! killing is easy now!! sometimes ONE SHOT!! make sure to get at least 384-bit and higher cards..such as 8800GTX..9800GTX+..GTS250 and it would be really..really nice if you get the GTX295 the game will be sooo lag-free with it! (I own one..but not using it right now)

about the game..the game overall is (so-so) at least it kills the boardome sometimes..nice graphics..but places and the atmosphere is somewhat bleak and boring, however I'm still enjoying it right now!!

Greatly underrated I have to offer a rebuttal to all the critics of this game. I'm just a short way into it, and I'm liking it a lot. Granted, it isn't as well scripted as Far Cry 1, but the vast environment, the realistic weapon and damage effects and the incredibly rich environmental sounds make it a very enjoyable experience. And you get to use a grenade launcher like the one Christopher Walken wields in Dogs of War! What's not to like? Well worth the price it's selling for, now....more info